One of my most frequently asked questions and frequently requested topics is around saving money on groceries. And with rising prices, I totally get it. In 2022, I documented my attempts to reduce my grocery bill over on Instagram. While it was difficult at times, I definitely made incremental changes in the right direction.
My experiences are as a household of one; so while this context is important, the habits and tips shared should be applicable to most households. I spend anywhere between £95 to £100 a month on groceries (although I miss the days when this was comfortably at £85 a month!) and this includes all groceries as well as the occasional bottle of wine. I have a separate line in my budget for household items such as kitchen roll and cleaning products. I also think it’s important to add that I don’t have any allergies or specific dietary restrictions; I know that buying reduced sugar or gluten-free products can often come at a premium. While some of these tips may be textbook, combining all of them together have helped me to keep my groceries shopping as low as I can at the moment.
Have a meal plan – A meal plan is nothing revolutionary about trying to save waste and money, but it’s one that people can often neglect. It doesn’t have to be as rigid as mapping out exactly what you’re having for each day of the week; instead, you could come up with seven lunches and dinners for the week so you’ve still got flexibility on what days you’re eating them.
Create meals using similar ingredients – Not only does using the same ingredients across multiple meals make any batch cooking and meal prepping a lot easier but it can often mean reducing the opened packets of ingredients in the kitchen, potential waste and the amount you’re buying.
What does this look like in a real-life scenario? I often make a tray of roasted vegetables (bell peppers, red onion, tomatoes and carrots) in the same week that I’m making pasta salad for lunch since I can use the bell peppers, red onion and tomatoes in the pasta salad too. Even though these are two different dishes, I have found I don’t need to buy double the ingredients. Or, instead of having three different types of greens to go with three different dinners, I’ll choose to have the same greens across all three meals. This tip works particularly well with fresh ingredients as using it up can avoid produce going off in the fridge.
Don’t go shopping hungry – one of the oldest tips in the book but eating beforehand is such an easy one to keep your food shopping bill down since we’re more likely to buy things we don’t need when we’re hungry. With an empty stomach, even the strongest of willpowers will find it difficult to resist the smell of fresh bread wafting through the supermarket.
Cook from scratch as much as possible – there will always be times when you want to reach for pre-prepared items – especially if it’s a particularly busy week at work or it’s the evening when all the kids’ clubs are on. This is understandable and I do this a lot myself. But cooking from scratch can make such a difference when you’re on a budget. If you’re not a confident cook, learning some basics can go a really long way, such a basic tomato-based sauce which can be used for a variety of dishes.
Be cautious of ‘one-time’ ingredients – trying new recipes can stop you from getting stuck in a food rut but be wary of any ingredients that you may struggle to use for more than one recipe. For example, a recent recipe I followed included cider – an ingredient that I wasn’t going to use in any other recipe and it’s not to my taste as a drink. Instead of buying the cider, I decided to skip this ingredient altogether since it wasn’t a crucial element of the recipe.
Substitute expensive ingredients for cheaper alternatives – an easy way to save a bit of money is finding cheaper alternatives to more expensive ingredients. For instance, a recipe may call for tenderstem broccoli but using regular broccoli instead will make very little difference in terms of taste but it can save some money (at the time of writing this, tenderstem broccoli is £7.61/100g compared to £1.92/100g for regular broccoli in Asda). Doing this consistently over time with multiple ingredients can help to save money in the long run.
Check for yellow sticker items – the reduced section in your local supermarket can be your best friend in saving money on your groceries. To maximise your savings, get clued up on the times your local supermarket starts reducing items by asking a member of staff or with a bit of trial and error. The day before a store is due to be closed is usually an excellent day for some bargains too. I recently picked up over £35 worth of shopping for less than £10 when I went before my local supermarket was shut the next day, and all of it was suitable for freezing.
Reduce your food waste – reducing food waste is excellent for keeping the grocery bills down, and needless to say, it’s great for the environment too. Take time to portion produce such as meat and bread into portions for freezing. Then you only need to defrost what you need. Check the specific requirements and best practices for items you’re freezing, and remember to add a label with the expiry date too.
Shop your cupboards before you go – have you ever bought something from the supermarket only to realise that when you get home you’ve got it in your cupboard already? Knowing what’s already in your kitchen will save on adding unnecessary extras into your trolley. Of course, having an organised cupboard makes this SO much easier week in, week out.
Look for ways to reduce the frequency of your top-up shops – Most of us probably underestimate the number of times we go to the supermarket each week, and those top-up shops can drain our grocery budgets when we end up buying more than we needed each time. Keep an eye on any patterns in your shopping behaviours that can either help you to reduce the number of top-up shops or reduce the amount of extras you’re adding to the basket each time.
I’d love to know where you’re most struggling with in your budget – is it groceries or another element? Let me know over on Instagram or by sending me a message.
